Biden makes the case for the private ownership of air superiority fighters and nuclear weapons

 awesomeness, blather, Forward!, Hmm..., news, politics, weapons, wisdom  No Responses »
Jun 242021
 

Hmmm…

Biden touts new crime prevention strategy focused on gun control

“Those who say the blood of Patriots, you know, and all the stuff about how we’re gonna have to move against the government,” Biden said. “If you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons.”

Considering that the whole point of the Second Amendment is to make sure the people can take on a tyrannical government, Biden just admitted that the National Firearms Act is unconstitutional. I *really* hope that this gets before the USSC.

I’d love to see “the Biden Act” get passed that wipes away all the nonsensical gun control laws and restores the Constitutional rights of the citizenry. The downside of that would be that the ammo shortage we’ve got now would be *nothing* compared to what it will be when people can go to WalMart and get themselves a full auto MP5, go to the gun range and blow through a few hundred rounds in under a minute. All thanks to one demented old kiddysniffer accidentally speaking some truth…

Huge Spike In Americans Buying F-15s After Biden Suggests You’ll Need Them To Overthrow Government

The nation scrambled to buy F-15s and nuclear weapons after President Biden said in a speech Wednesday that you’ll never beat a government unless you have the fighter jets and intercontinental ballistic missiles.

All over the nation, American citizens were seen parking their brand-new F-15s in their driveways and garages. Some wealthier Americans purchased the F-22, while less fortunate citizens were forced to buy the F-35 joint fighter. But no matter what craft they chose, American citizens said they were just glad to finally be protected against a tyrannical government.

Image below not related. Or…. is it?

 Posted by at 4:52 am

12-story building collapses in Surfside, Florida

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., news, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 242021
 

Cripes, did the Chinese build this?

Watch Live — Horror in Miami as 12-story Champlain Towers collapses…

Could be *hundreds* of people in there. Reports of screams from the rubble.

 Posted by at 4:26 am

“Not my problem” or “nothing can be done?”

 AARRRGH, awesomeness, blather, dumbassery, humor, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 242021
 

So apparently some kids set fire to a fireworks display at a HyVee in Eagan, Minnesota. I’ve seen fireworks fires before; when I lived in Colorado many, many years ago I came across the raging inferno that was a truck loaded with fireworks. It was a sight to behold, and the firefighters on scene did the only thing they could: stood the hell back. Fireworks come complete with their own oxidizer; you ain’t putting that ᛋᚻᛁᛏ out with water, believe you me. So when the HyVee fire started, an employee was spotted not doing a whole hell of a lot about it. Maybe because he couldn’t be bothered. And maybe because he was smart enough to know that there wasn’t jack he could do about it.

Side note: the news article I linked to points out that “youths” have been arrested for this. Hmmm. Eagan is part of Minneapolis, home of the Fentanyl Floyd Fires.

 Posted by at 2:16 am

No comment

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 222021
 

What *can* one say? Other than “mumble grumble something something society is going to hell argle bargle.”

Add this to the holiday traditions of fireworks on the 4th of July, turkey on Thanksgiving, gifts on Christmas…

You don’t get a choice.

 Posted by at 3:26 am

Next stop: Supreme Court?

 Forward!, Hmm..., news, politics, weapons  No Responses »
Jun 212021
 

Completely not to my surprise, the Ninth Circuit issued a stay on making the state of California recognize the Constitutional rights of its citizens. The Ninth has not actually ruled on this issue yet, but the fact that they’ve come down with this “go on and keep infringing basic rights” decision is a pretty clear sign of where they are likely to go.

9th Circuit Grants Stay On Lifting California’s Assault Weapon Ban

The Ninth will start hearing oral arguments on June 22 (tomorrow). Whichever way the Ninth ends up ruling, the case will almost certainly be appealed to the Supreme Court.

 Posted by at 9:00 pm

Incoming from the depths of space…

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, science, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jun 212021
 

Now this is interesting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_UN271

2014 UN271 is a trans-Neptunian object on a cometary-like orbit from the Oort cloud. It is currently approaching the Sun at a distance of 20.2 AU (3.02 billion km) and will reach its perihelion of 10.9 AU (just outside of Saturn‘s orbit) in January 2031. Announced in June 2021, it was discovered by astronomers Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein in archival images from the Dark Energy Survey.[1] When first imaged in October 2014, the object was 29 AU (4.3 billion km) from the Sun and almost as far as Neptune‘s orbit.

2014 UN271‘s absolute magnitude of 7.8[2] suggests the body could be in the range of a 100 km in diameter. However, if there is undetected cometary activity[6] from supervolatiles such as CO and CO2, it could be significantly smaller. Cometary activity has previously been observed as far as 25.8 AU (3.86 billion km) from the Sun on a few comets, for example C/2010 U3 (Boattini).[7]

2014 UN271 took around 1.5 million years to complete half an orbit from its furthest distance of 40,000 AU (0.6 ly) in the Oort cloud.[4] It will come to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) around 20 January 2031 at a distance of 10.95 AU[5] which is just outside of Saturn’s orbit. The outbound orbital period will be approximately 3.5 million years with an aphelion distance of about 55,000 AU (0.9 ly).[4] The object is only very loosely bound to the Sun.

Basically a *gigantic* comet will come within the orbit of Saturn in nine and a half years. Time enough for SpaceX to build and launch a flyby probe?

Doubtful that this will be something visible even with sizable “personal” telescopes, but it’d certainly be interesting to see such a thing up close. It’s the size of a “dwarf planet” and has spent the bulk of its existence far from any star.

 Posted by at 8:41 am

The purpose of modern education

 AARRRGH, art, Hmm..., politics, Worldwreckers, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jun 202021
 

Used to be, readin’, writin’, ‘rithmatic. Many complained – not without cause –  that it was a machine that only served to prepare kids for a lifetime of drudgery in industry. But now it often doesn’t even seem to do that; instead, the focus seems to be on instilling a sense of worthlessness and guilt and failure and fatigue. The worldwreckers want anything but kids who are enthused and proud and well educated in science and math and skeptical thinking.

One bonus of the world grinding to a halt to deal with the CommiePox has been that a lot of parents have seen what nonsense their kids are getting fed at school thanks to a lot of schooling having been done via Zoom. As schools return to normal a lot of that will end… but with luck a lot of kids will record their teachers and the insane political indoctrination that goes on. There is a debate on the legality of recording a teacher in a classroom, and it seems to vary from state to state; but if a teacher is promoting vicious ideologies like socialism or critical race theory or creationism in a public school classroom, then a good argument can be made that the law is an ass. If a teach was physically abusing students, who would really file charges if a student recorded that?

Woke Elementary

 Posted by at 5:14 pm

Someone went ahead and built my “fanpacks”

 aircraft, awesomeness, Hmm..., My Fiction, science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
Jun 202021
 

Many long years ago I wrote a sci-fi story titled “Mass Disappearance,” a little bit of space opera that was the first of the “Zaneverse” scribblings I wrote. I posted it hereabouts free for the downloading; go ahead and take a look, either to be entertained by some high quality science fiction, or by some craptacular dreck, depending on your point of view.

Anyway, at a certain point in the story a few characters use “fanpacks” to get around. These devices generated a small bit of discussion in the comments. And as it turns out, someone went ahead and built something quite like them. Larger, fewer blades, non-stowable… but recognizable in terms of purpose and functionality.

 Posted by at 2:21 am

“Mastering the Transatmosphere”

 aircraft, art, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jun 192021
 

The June 1986 issue of “Air Force Magazine” had a cover article about the next big thing for the Air Force… aerospaceplanes capable of attaining orbit. Those who have been paying attention since 1986 might have noticed a dearth of aerospaceplanes, but at least the article has some spiffy cover art, along with interior art of what it claims is a 1965 McDonnell Douglas aerospaceplane. Two problems, though… McDonnell Douglass didn’t exist until 1967, and the art sure looks more like an SST to me. Shrug.

Anyway, I’ve uploaded a 300DPI scan of the article (and two ads… one depicting what appears to be a neutral particle beam space weapon, the other for a series of space-based nuclear powerplants) to the 2021-06 APR Extras folder on Dropbox, available to all APR patrons and subscribers.

 Posted by at 2:49 am
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